The present invention relates to a radial sliding seal subassembly with a sealing component and with at least one pretensioning component co-operating therewith, wherein the sealing component comprises a sealing section extending in the axial direction and in the circumferential direction, on which a sealing surface facing in a first radial direction is formed for sealing and at least in the axial direction sliding contact on a working surface extending in the axial direction and in the circumferential direction, and on which a pretensioning surface facing in a second radial direction opposite to the first radial direction is formed, for engagement with the pretensioning component for transferring the radial pretensioning force.
Such radial sliding seal subassemblies are used in particular in metering devices containing piston-cylinder arrangements. Such metering devices are for example syringes, pipetting devices and the like.
In such metering devices the radial sliding seal subassemblies of the generic type serve as a rule to seal a radial gap between a cylinder wall and a wall of the piston rod moving relative to the cylinder.
Since this radial gap as a rule extends all the way round in the circumferential direction, the sealing section, in particular the sealing surface formed therein, as well as the working surface preferably extend all the way round in the circumferential direction.
With known metering devices of the prior art the sealing component is frequently slid inside out over an O-ring as radial sliding seal subassembly, which in the installed state of the radial sliding seal subassembly exerts a radial pretensioning force on the sealing component. The O-ring at the same time presses against the pretensioning surface of the sealing section and thereby radially pretensions the sealing surface opposite the pretensioning surface in the radial direction.
A disadvantage of these known types of radial sliding seal subassembly is on the one hand the fact that the radial pretensioning force exerted by the O-ring as the pretensioning component varies very greatly on account of large dimensional tolerances and a large variation of the determining material properties of the known rubber-elastic pretensioning components.